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Gary Lineker is back, so we’ll get more than 20 minutes of Match of the Day

Hugo Keenan’s ‘implacable excellence’; Clive Woodward’s bizarre comments; Rhasidat Adeleke’s star performance

Gary Lineker leaves his home with his dog. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty

Mary Hannigan's face
Mary Hannigan
Mon Mar 13 2023 - 10:34

If life was fair, the Irish rugby team would be granted a month to recover from Sunday’s rather bruising trip to Murrayfield but, instead, they have just six days to prepare for an attempt at history-making.

Gerry Thornley tees it up for us: “Ireland v England, the Aviva Stadium, next Saturday on St Patrick’s weekend, and an attempt to seal a Grand Slam in Dublin for the first time ever, in what will be Johnny Sexton’s last-ever Six Nations match.”

It doesn’t, as they say, get much bigger than that.

John O’Sullivan analyses how Hugo Keenan’s “implacable excellence”, in defence and attack, played no small part in the victory, while Nathan Johns takes a look at the performance of man of the match Mack Hansen.

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Nathan, in The Offload column, also shares with us an early contender for sporting quote of the year, namely Clive Woodward’s take on England’s 10-53 mauling by France: “It’s not that big of a gap.”

Speaking of maulings. The BBC had taken a sizeable one since they suspended Gary Lineker last week, before reinstating him this morning, resulting in their sports coverage being shambolically slim over the weekend. Ken Early gives us his take on the affair.

Ian O’Riordan, meanwhile, tells us all about Rhasidat Adeleke becoming the first Irish athlete to win an individual medal in a sprint event in the American college indoor championships, after she won 400m silver on Saturday.

And in his Tipping Point column, Denis Walsh writes about the Cheltenham Festival which, despite becoming “the playground of multimillionaire owners” in the last decade or so, remains “intoxicating and compelling”, still producing “heartening yarns of underdog stables with a big horse, taking on the world”.

Telly choice: Slim pickings on the live sporting front (unless you want to tune in to BBC Scotland for the cup clash of Falkirk and Ayr Utd), but Against the Head (RTÉ2, 8.0) will bring you a review of the weekend’s Six Nations action.

Keep an eye on: Events at the BBC today. Gary Lineker is back, so we’ll get more than a 20 minute Match of the Day next weekend, but there’ll be no shortage of calls for Beeb heads to roll. It could be a lively day.